NORM PATTIS: Power won the Occupy debate today

I usually enjoy arguing in appellate courts, and one of my favorites is the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. The federal appellate courts are, for most people, the most powerful courts in the land. Yes, the Supreme Court is the top of the pyramid, but that court agrees to hear so few cases that for almost everyone else the last stop on justice's train, at least in so far as federal claims are concerned, is a federal appellate court.

I was in the Second Circuit this morning on the Occupy New Haven case, appearing before a three-judge panel on our motion for a stay of a lower court order permitting the city to evict the protestors who have lived on the city's Green for the past six months.